Sound of Nairobi (SON)

For b-side Festival 2022, we have been connecting with two artist collectives based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Creatives Garage a creative studio, film and media house; and Masaii Mbili an artist and activist collective based in Kibera, a large informal settlement in Nairobi's city centre.

Creatives Garage, led by Liz Kilili, have co-designed our queer led and digitally experimental programme, That Other Place. This year, Creatives Garage and b-side have co-commissioned artist and writer Babar Suleman to create a major new augmented reality artwork at the Isle of Portland's Portland Bill Lighthouse.

Visiting Portland from Masaii Mbili this year is artist Kevo Stero. An artist and sign writer, Kevo has been in residence at b-side throughout August undertaking the project, Everyday Portland. A citizen journalist project, Kevo has been excavating stories of Portland islanders, working with residents to turn their stories into giant banners which will be paraded at this year's Portland Parade.

As part of our Online Collection we want to share with you SOUND OF NAIROBI (SON) as a way to celebrate the places and people of Nairobi and to offer these sounds for your interest, inspiration and potential future collaborations.

SOUND OF NAIROBI (SON) is an open-access archive of the sounds of Nairobi. It employs sound as a material that can be archived, researched and explored as a source of information that can narrate the story of the city, now and in the future. It is intended as a resource for artists, researchers, recordists…anyone interested in sound.